One week left. I was supposed to go to Beijing today with my students, but last night they found me and told me they couldn't get a taxi to take us to the train station (none of the taxi drivers wanted to wake up that early to take us). So we went to this little city and walked around. It was actually a great experience. We had to take two buses to get to the city, and that was an experience in itself.
So I have a great story...too bad I can't tell it until I get home. :/ Tomorrow I am going to Beijing with my very good friend, Alice. We'll have a meeting in the morning and then go to the Summer Palace afterwards. Monday the students have to do their final exam, "Microteaching". They'll each teach for about 7 minutes from their textbooks. Thursday they have a post-listening test. Really, they don't get an official score - it's really grading us and how well we did in teaching them (how much they've improved). That night we'll have class parties. Emotionally, I don't think I'm ready for this week. At the beginning, my students asked me "will you remember us when you go home?"
Now they keep telling me "we'll remember each other forever." This summer has just given me a totally different perspective. It really is an eye opener when you have to define certain things - when you say something and you just get a blank, unaware stare from the person you are talking to. So just a thought:
"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinth. 13:12) "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge..." (2 Peter 1:5-8) So we strive to grow in Him, right? why? so that when we see Him face to face we can puff out our chest and say "I advanced! I became the best I could be!"? NO!:
If 2 Peter says there is an ineffectiveness and an unproductiveness that can be had in the smack center of knowledge, then knowledge alone is not good enough. (How refreshing that is to know!!! So many people fear witnessing because of their lack of knowledge - how great is it to know that knowledge does not equal to being effective and productive!) It's so awesome to think of all of the knowledge that exists in the universe, in all of creation, in all of eternity, and in light of God. 
To illustrate, imagine that your computer screen represents all of the knowledge to be had. And you, you smart little thing!, contain exactly one pixel of knowledge out of the whole screen. Now even this is an overestimate of any one man's knowledge, but indulge. Now, looking from the outside in, seeing the whole screen o' knowledge, don't you think that there's a possibility that in today's society, the little box we've packaged our Creator in - just might be too small? Maybe I've gotten ahead of myself here. The fact is, that in our one pixel of knowledge...we can't possibly see the whole picture, and we won't until we meet HIM face to face! Now if you were our Lord, and you left us one resource to share the gospel with a dying world...knowing that we only see one pixel of your great picture....would you choose our resource to be knowledge? HA! So now reread 2 Peter 1:5-8: "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge..." Yes, we are called to add knowledge to our goodness...but what about faith and self-control, perseverance and godliness, brotherly kindness and love??? See without the rest, we are no better off than the pharisees of Jesus' day. Which leads me to such a great passage...(and I'll leave you hanging there to ponder further for yourself...) "If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13
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